August Be Home Free Winners

As every week goes by the BeHomeFree gallery fills up with more and more incredible images. The task of whittling it down becomes harder with the passing days and that is a good thing.  Thank you to everyone who uses the hashtag, it is growing into a really lovely gallery.  

These four remind me of the my outdoor adventures this month, the natural colours and sense of fresh air and sunshine. 

@melindajk @sigridsminde @niki.at.the.cottage @christinagreve

Our sponsors for this month have been One World Trading who are gifting a vase, and the winner for this prize is @justjane17 whose washing blowing on the line says all there is about summer days.

Southwood Stores have also offered to be a sponsor with their glitzy sequined basket. And the winner of this will be Dorte of @lewesmap for this quiet and still image in a church, with lovely soft light and a sense of calm.  I really love exploring inside churches and around the graveyards, this photo speaks of the cool air and special smells of old churches. Perhaps it is also a reminder that children don't always need plastic entertainment.

Can Jane and Dorte please message me through instagram to arrange delivery of your gift from Be Home Free, One World Trading and Southwood Stores. 

Next month's sponsors will be announced at the beginning of September when I will also be unveiling the work I've been doing to change my bedroom around, which during this mini heatwave has been quite a task as the paint is drying really fast.

Please continue to join with the hashtag with a chance to win. Many thanks to each and everyone who has contributed so far. 

Love and peas ... Janice

Styling The Seasons December

Styling the seasons for December couldn't be easier really, it's something we all do, although some of us tend to continue the idea for the rest of the year in some form or another!  Set up by Katy and Charlotte it's been such a great community to be involved with and another thing that I have Instagram to thank for bringing us together. 

Luckily for me as I live in the countryside there is enough greenery in my garden and around where I live to supply me with some seasonal essentials - holly with berries and pine cones. 

So here's what Ive done to decorate the house this Christmas.

I like to group the mercury glass on this old over mantle. The mirror back is great at throwing the candle light back around the room for a soft mood.

I treated myself to some beeswax candles.  I have become a bit candle obsessed and along with a real fire, I like to have some nice smelling ones burning during the day. My absolute favourites this year came from Amalia who writes the blog "these small finds" and can be found on instagram as _apothecary_ .  Amalia found some beautiful blue bell jars from the USA and filled them with soy wax candles, she finds the most lovely containers including the little cake tin ones on my mantlepiece. 

These cookie hearts came from a supermarket in Sweden.  I added a bit of icing to them.  They are called Pepparkakkor and have a lovely gingerbread smell. I included them into my banister arrangement.  Im so happy to finally have a house with open wooden banisters on the staircase, for no other reason than to decorate it in December.

Some of my Swedish lights for the front window combined with the paper stars, bringing a bit of that beautiful place back home with me.

I didn't decorate this gingerbread heart myself, it was already iced with Kurbits decoration from the Swedish supermarket and luckily made it home in one piece.  The top garland is from an online dried flower company and made from cotton pods, I've never seen one before but I absolutely love it.

The design motif called Kurbits is traditional in Sweden and can be found on many things. It is a style of painting normally, based on vegetables and floral organic shapes, it was originally a fertility symbol.  You can find it on the little wooden Dala Horses, embroidered onto clothing and painted onto furniture.

In a nearby village there is a Christmas barn which opens at weekends in December, it is the most stunning Tythe barn you have ever seen and is full to bursting with decorations and presents.  I topped up on a few new pieces like the string of bells and the metal birds.  They also have candles from the candle makers St Eval which are great quality.  The Tythe barn in Haddenham is the perfect place to get you in the spirit and mood for a time of cozy evenings with friends and family, a sparkly and fairy like grotto which can be recreated at home. 

I wish you all a healthy happy holiday with good food and warm drinks to help you relax and have a few days of nesting in your very own grotto. Sending you love and peace from my little village in Buckinghamshire. 

Sisterhood and Mavens

There seems to be a spiritual consciousness in the ether this year, which for me comes at a really good time.  Never has it been easier to meet new people via social media and network with those sharing the same passions and interests.

I believe that women are really coming into their own in this regard, good at socialising and empathising there has never been a better time to find support from other women. Or so I thought.  

Perhaps it's because the changing times find us able to work on our own from home, using the web to connect, and creatives now have more platforms than ever to show their work, that a new generation and style of networking has begun.

Thanks to a few risk taking individuals, those not afraid to say 'hey lets get together", some of us are finding the support that we seriously need. At a time we really need it too.

I was going to talk about a bad experience I had on twitter, but I'm not giving that air time, they can sweat and wait to hear from my solicitor. But it does just go to show that social media is a double-edged sword and it's sharp so use it wisely.

Through this media I have met an enormous amount of great great women, all making a way in their businesses and looking to create opportunities and introductions to others, as together we are stronger.

The two saving graces for me most recently are called Conversational and Sisterhood, both of which have organised face to face events, on different scales, but just as fruitful in their outcomes.

Last weekend I attended one of the Sisterhood events - the winter supper which can be found on instagram with the hashtag #sisterhoodsupperwithtoast.

The event was visually stunning and with workshops which provided me with the chance to try modern calligraphy with Quill London. The venue has just opened and it's called The Forge Bristol. 

After the supper I drove on into Wales to The Welsh House group of cottages for a few days break without wifi or phone signals.  

I think we all need reminding of how life used to be, and how great it feels to try some slow living, simple pleasures.

This house has made me look at a few things differently, a great lesson in dealing with low light which is much needed as the days get darker and I only like to use natural light in photos.

The cottages have a weight, a gravitas to them, visually stunning inside and out, they must be the most beautiful places to stay in the whole of the UK, and trust me I've stayed in a lot of places.

The attention to authentic detail by owner Dorian is second to none, I am usually highly critical about other people's decorations but here I couldn't fault a single thing. In fact, I would happily buy the cottages with all the furniture in them as it was just perfect.

I have so many beautiful shots, I fell in love with the window ledges, is it possible to have a love affair with a window ledge? Perhaps because mine at home are so wimpy and rubbish in comparison. I want to knock the windows out and start again!

I will be talking about this trip quite a bit in the coming weeks and have put together Christmas styling ideas for a visual story illustrating A Child's Christmas In Wales.

The area in Carmarthenshire has stunning hills and valleys and very interesting historical sights, including woolen mills and cheese making. One trip which has been on my hit list for some years was to visit Jane Beck Welsh Blankets, an adorable shop in the middle of nowhere with the largest selection of vintage and new Welsh wool tapestry blankets. 

Jane Beck Welsh Blankets 

If I have enticed you to think about booking The Welsh House go to http://www.thewelshhouse.co.uk/ and see the choice of three cottages along with the history of how Dorian made a dream become reality by building and renovating.

I'm sure by the time you have seen all my photos you will be rushing to book a long weekend for yourself, they can also be found on Air bnb here.  You have a choice of three different style cottages and I will be featuring the two which are next to each other, Bryn Eglur and Ty Unnos.  I didn't get many outside shots of the house as the weather took a turn for the worse, however, I'm sure you will agree that these cottages are so cozy it hardly matters.

The word Maven came about from a meeting with Hayley who sells her own range of clothing and organised Conversational it means : A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from Hebrew, meaning "one who understands", based on an accumulation of knowledge.

Be a MAVEN and not a TROLL ...

Instagram lovelies and hashtag fun

For the last few months I have been getting messages and questions from friends and colleagues about Instagram.  Several of my blogger friends have been running online courses to help you focus on the look of your feed but the one thing I get asked a lot is "who do I follow" and "which hashtags", for the beginner who wants to get involved in this community here is just one small element that has taken me the last year to distill. These are my personal choice of people I have watched and interacted with and maybe this will give you a starting point if you are feeling overwhelmed.

Before I start on the lists, please please, forgive me if I have missed you out, I put this rough list together in just the last few days. Since getting the menopause (theres a month of blog posts right there!) I have suffered from chronic fatigue and forgetfulness.  So I started to write down notes and take screen shots of posts on Instagram to remind me of things I wanted to take part in and that I thought would be good photography tasks.

As you investigate the accounts and hashtags that I recommend you will become familiar with the style of their work and theme. The photo above is something that I would consider for Emma Harris's tuesday challenge #aquietstyle, taking a moment of quiet in the day for peace and calm and a bit of styling. 

You may have seen some of my posts for Urban Jungle Bloggers, this is a community for plant lovers, they set a monthly topic to style your plants in a certain way, so above is my #plantshelfie.  Urban Jungle Bloggers is a worldwide community set up by Igor and Judith. If you have plants in your home then you may want to sign up with them, info can be found on their UJB site.

For interior design lovers who are proud to show off their homes and peer into others, then At Mine is a community for you. It is a website of members homes which is constantly being updated. On Instagram they also set monthly challenges, so the pic above is one for Style At Mine table settings this month. 

Instagram hashtag challenges are often set up as collaborations by two accounts.  The first I ever tried is dear to my heart and it is 'A Year Of Moments' with Lobster & Swan and Candy Pop.  Every month they give you a topic to interpret, this month it is #ayearofmoments_magical so I took the above photo with fairy lights to add a bit of sparkle and seasonal magic.

This photo could span several topics, it show a cup of coffee so could be put in for #adoremycupofcoffee  and #mythursdaybreaktime as I have used the autumnal colours, leaves and pumpkin it also fits with any November themed tags - #cherishandrelish_november #natureinthehome #stylingtheseasons 

Styling The Seasons with Apartment Apothecary (Katy) and Lotts And Lots (Charlotte) is a big favourite of mine too.  Usually I style a whole area of the house and totally enjoy doing it.  But this month it's a flat lay as they have joined with Emily Quinton to win a place on a course with her. So the hashtag this month is #STSxmakelight.  Emily started the huge hashtag #floralfridaycompetition, and like many weekly hashtags it runs on a certain days. The clue is usually in the title like #mymondaymoodboard with Jess and Lucy (it also has its own instagram account). Others are like ; #mystillsunday #itsamoodywednesday #mandalamonday #mymonthofsundays 

Some larger hashtag communities have their own devoted accounts and nominate guest hosts every week to choose the winners and set the topic. Accounts like It's My Week will set a tag like #myweekofwhatisee #myweekofabstract.

There are too many people here for me to set up direct links to, I have also compiled a Pinterest board showing lovely photographers you can find it here, this is just a small selection of accounts that style in a way I find pleasing. They may give you ideas of what kind of pics you want to take yourself. Remember that Instagram is all about the photo. 

My personal advice is not to bother with a hashtag that says #flowers #pink and general descriptive words of that nature, but to find a group of people producing say a pink floral image - this may fall into floralfridaycompetition as an example.  Anyway I think you get my point about which hashtags to use and research. The best way to suss it out is just to go on there and click on the # to see what comes up, explore for yourself.

The themes are so many and varied, it will be possible for you to find ones that fit with the kind of pictures you want to take, it just takes a bit of hunting.  So the one above would be suitable say for Capturing Colour with Capture By Lucy, a colourful lifestyle theme.  

This is quite a list to type so you will need to sift through it and keep referring back I expect so here goes with the hashtags and themes I have been looking at this week :

#laidbacklivingis with @dorisleestudio, #stsxmakelight #stylingtheseasons with @aptapothecary @lottsandlots, #oftheland and #fosterthoughtfulness with @toasttravels, #ayearofmoments_magical with @lobsterandswan @candypop.uk, #cherishandrelish_november @allenandbear @flojoro123, #natureinthehome @littlegreenshed, #mythursdaybreatime @littlemaldod #myseasonof_florals @claireyclaire @hellolaurajane, #nestandflourish @xxbirdhouse @liveandbloom, #petalsandprops @aalmadr, #thesestoriestold @rosehippaper, #sundaysatmine @atmine, #capturingcolour @capturebylucy, #floralfridaycompetition @emilyquinton, #aquietstyle @aquietstyle, #mystillsunday #fouriadorefriday @kimklassen, #slowliving @geoffreyandgrace @hippieindisguise, #thisjoyfulmoment @ruthlgarner,#byarrangement with @sarahnotes 

There is no quick fix with Instagram, it takes time but is a very rewarding community to be involved with, unlike Twitter it seems to focus on support, positivity and kind words and as a more artistic based app, I think reflects the nicer nature of artistic people. 

They say the like-minded people flock together and no better place than on Instagram.  Bullies can keep their cowardly rudeness over on that other place, and what miserable lives they must lead, but not us with our flowers and scissors and bits of faffery, oh no.

If you want to take your instagram more seriously then perhaps do an online course with someone like Emily Quinton at Makelight or Me And Orla (the Instaretreat) and for more info about hashtags have a read of Lucy's blog this week  (click on that to link).  


Always feel free to ask me questions on instagram and to engage with the hashtag setters themselves, Im sure they would love your feedback.